Cannes 2010

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

The Strange Case of Angelica

Les amours imaginaires

Certified Copy

Poetry

The 64th Cannes Film Festival started on Wednesday, and while this year's edition seems somewhat light on works by major directors, there are several films I hope to see in the New York Film Festival this fall. The most highly anticipated is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, his first feature since 2006's brilliant Syndromes and a Century. Others I'm particularly looking forward to in the Competition include Ken Loach's Route Irish, Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche, Lee Chang-Dong's Poetry, and Mike Leigh's Another Year. Highlights of a strong Un Certain Regard lineup include Manoel de Oliveira's The Strange Case of Angelica, which has already screened to very favorable reviews; Xavier Dolan's follow-up to I Killed My Mother, titled Les amours imaginaires; Jean-Luc Godard's Film Socialisme (the trailer to this looks gorgeous); Jia Zhangke's documentary I Wish I Knew; Cristi Puiu's Aurora; and Hong Sang-Soo's Ha Ha Ha. Olivier Assayas's 5-hour docudrama Carlos, a late entry screening out of competition, should be a major film, and I'm also very much looking forward to Gregg Araki's Kaboom.

João César Monteiro - Silvestre

João César Monteiro, currently the subject of a retrospective at BAM, is a filmmaker previously unknown to me. The images above give some idea of the uncanny visual power of his bizarre 15th-century historical film Silvestre, but can't convey the hypnotic power of the long takes and slow tracking shots combined with highly stylized theatrical acting and sets, beautiful music and a radiant performance by Maria de Medeiros in her first film. I'm in the process of watching his delightfully absurd God's Comedy on DVD and plan to see his final film, Come and Go, next week. It's always a treat to discover a major director like this thanks to the resourceful programmers at BAM Cinematek.